Gracie Anne Paxton
by ml4everKatie
Summary: It starts out as a common day, but then and unexpected series of events makes Magaret stop to think about all she has. It's written from Margaret's perspective.
1. Admiration

My daughter, Gracie, is now two months old. I absolutely adore her. Sometimes I find myself standing in the doorway of her nursery, admiring her, which I find myself doing now. I love watching her small chest rise and fall as she sleeps, and I can finally say "My daughter." She's my first born and I've always wanted a baby, ever since I was younger, but I'd never found Mr. Perfect. But I finally have… "Mr. Perfect" is known by everyone else as Andrew Paxton. He's the most gorgeous man you could ever set your eyes upon. Not to be distracted by his six pack, and muscular arms, but his facial features as well. He's absolutely perfect. That's of course why I married him. And we together produced the most perfect baby, Gracie Anne Paxton, who was still sleeping away silently in her crib. It's 3am and she just fell asleep. I'm here because I got up to rock her back to sleep after one of hearing her wail from her crib, which is a nightly occurance in our house. As I turn to go back to sleep Andrew is standing behind me. I gasped, being so caught up in my admiring I hadn't noticed he was standing there.

"Shh…" He whispered to me in his soothing voice, "You'll wake Gracie."

"Sorry babe, thought you were sleeping."

"How could I sleep knowing my girls are up?" He told me, putting his hands on my shoulders and guiding me down the hall back to our room.

"How did we get so lucky?" I asked, crawling back into bed.

"I don't know, hon, I think I'm the lucky one." He said, "You're the most beautiful wife and mother anyone could ask for."

"Oh, is that so?"

"Uh, huh," He responded, both of us dozing off.


	2. A walk in the park

The Next Morning 9 am

I've showered, made breakfast, fed Gracie, and seen Andrew off to work. Now, while Andrew works, Gracie and I are going out for a walk through the park. I pulled out her stroller, which was a rather nice and farely expensive baby shower gift from Andrew's parents. I get the feeling sometimes that they feel bad for me, having lost both of my parents when I was sixteen. I don't need, nor do I want anyone to feel bad for me. Yeah, it was a loss, but I got the chance to prove myself to anyone who stepped in my way. I'm not exactly proud of the life I've lived, seeing as though my employees used to view me as a "poisonous bitch…" but I think I've changed for the best since meeting Andrew. In fact, most of my employees came to see me in the hospital following the birth of my daughter. I've relaxed since marrying Andrew, I've also let myself be taken care of. After all, who's the one working while I stay home with the baby? Andrew, after how I used to treat him before our little rendezvous in Alaska.

So here I am fooling with the lock on this stroller. I feel pretty stupid when I find the latch that says "pull here." Maybe I set my mind at ease a little too much when I married Andrew… Now I'm transferring Gracie from her baby carrier to this. I love how the weight of her small body feels against my chest… I often like to jog in the morning to relieve stress and stay fit, which is why it was a struggle for me to accept the 9 month lack of my daily routine. But now, having this stroller, Gracie can accompany me while I reduce my jog to a walk. Living in New York, I like to walk along the winding patch that goes through Central Park. I absolutely love the feeling I get when people stop me to ask about her. That's another way I feel I've changed since marrying Andrew; I feel I come off as more approachable. Before, I was all buisness with a tight dress who, if messed with, would rather ignore you than respond to anything out of your mouth.

I was sitting on one of the benches in the middle of the park, taking in the landscape, when an older gentleman sat next to me. "That's a beautiful youngen' you have there"

"Thank you," I said, glowing.

"How old is she?"

"Two months old, she'll be three months in June." I told him.

He smiled, and then continued to tell me about his life. "I have a daughter, but it's long distance. She lives down in Florida."

"Oh, I see." I told him, I felt kind of bad for him, he seemed lonely, so I felt obligated to stay and continue the conversation. "I have relatives up in Alaska."

"It's kind of nice," he began, "you get the chance to have them fly in and spend holidays hardly have any worries. No one's overstaying their welcomes…" he explained.

"Yeah, my in-laws live in Alaska. You always here about in-laws getting annoying and trying to control your house, but I've never had the chance for that to happen. So far they've just been very helpful."

"Well, that's very nice," he said with a smile on his face… "Well, I'd better get going, I have to run to the store and pick up some of my medication."

With that he got up and left. He still seemed like a lonely soul, I didn't even catch his name. I blew it off, figuring I would just see him the next day in the park. I then proceeded to continue my journey on through the park and then back home.


	3. Family

Back in the apartment: 4: 30 pm

I was sitting on the couch, and Gracie was taking her afternoon nap when Andrew walked in. He came and sat next to me, "hey sweetie, how was your day today?"

I layed down and put my head in his lap, "Pretty calm, I didn't do much. How was yours?"

"Hectic." He mumbled.

"Aw, what happened?" I asked in a baby-ish tone.

"What didn't happen? It was just… stressful."

"I'm sorry… I met someone today."

"Oh, you did? Should I be woried?" He asked with a half smile.

"Maybe," I said, grinning to myself. "He's quite the charmer."

Andrew looked down at me, "And where did you meet this man?"

"In the park," I simply said. Then I dropped the act, chuckling, "He was an elderly man who sat next to me and we had a little chat."

"Oh." He seemed uninterested, then continued, "so what's for dinner?" Then I knew he wasn't interested.

"Well, I don't know, maybe chicken cacciatore."

"That sounds nice, and you know how to make that?"

"Well, ya see, I was thinking you could go pick it up for us."

"Alright," He stood up and grabbed his keys, "I'll be right back. And when I do get back I don't want to find any other men in here." And he left.

Andrew got back, we ate, I fed Gracie, Andrew and I played with her, oohing and ahhing over everything she did, then I put her to sleep for the night. Then Andrew and I also went to bed. I was exhausted, so simply rested my head on Andrew chest and let myelf fall alseep to his rhythmic breathing.

I woke up at 8 am this morning to find the bed next to me empty. It was Andrew's day off and I knew he had made breakfast by the smell of omlets filling the room. I went into the kitchen and sat between him and Gracie. Andrew was reading the paper, so I just grabbed a plate and began eating. I was shortly interrupted by the page I saw laying on the table. It was the obituary section of the paper. A certain face stuck out at me. I turned the paper so that it was right side up to me. The name beside the face was Arthur Simmons. It was the man from the park the previous day. I suddenly got a queezy feeling in my stomach and a lump in my throat. I put down my fork and began to sob uncontrollably.

Going to Arthur's funeral and seeing the fairly empty room made me reflect upon my own family, and the family I'd created. I had precious time to be spent with the people I care about most. Later that month I had the opportunity to invite Andrews parents, and of course Gammy, down to spend some time with us. I wanted Annie to get to know her great-granddaughter. I wanted Andrew to create a better relationship with his father. I wanted to get to know my mother-in-law a little better. I wanted to be able to say, "I have created a close-knit, and comfortable enviroment for my daughter."


End file.
